Hi all I'm trying to locate apprentice indentures for three (possible) Devon relatives. I've found records of the indentures via Findmypast, but I'd like to see the documents themselves. I've had no luck with the online catalogues (SW Heritage Trust, National Archives).

The apprentices are John VENING of Totnes, to Nicholas Williams, joiner, Exeter (1723); John VENING to Arthur Hemmick, carpenter, Ipplepen (1752); and Richard VENNING to Robert Venning, smith, Plymouth Dockyard (1795).

The National Archives has a series of records IR 1, originating from "Boards of Stamps, Taxes, Excise, Stamps and Taxes, and Inland Revenue", which contains Apprenticeship Books for various counties and cities. This seems to be the source of the records extracted on FindMyPast.

Thanks Roger. As you say, the Apprenticeship Books at IR 1 are the source for the data on FMP, and they can be downloaded free in pdf form from National Archives, but they provide only summary details (name of apprentice and master, trade etc.) for tax purposes. I'm interested in the indentures themselves.

If cannot find the Indentures listed in the Catalogue's then would suggest they don't exist any more.

On searching SW Heritage Catalogue on the word "apprenticed" then 28,891 Records returned, but on looking not all parishes have returns and on looking at ones that do, they range from Cullompton (1975 records) to Southleigh (1 Record).

And not all of them are Apprenticeship Indentures, some are Settlement Examinations etc

I think you need to differentiate between true apprenticeship indentures which involved the apprenticeship of a young person to a master in order to learn a specific trade, such as carpenter (which would usually involve the payment of a premium to the master) and the parish apprenticeships which were a way of dealing with pauper children. The latter are the indentures which usually survive in parish records and on reading them it's clear that the 'apprentice' was often tied to a menial job such as a farm servant in return for bed and board.